MIAMI -- A judge refused Friday to overturn a German man's
murder conviction for killing his girlfriend nearly 15 years ago,
saying his request was ``without merit.''
At an evidentiary
hearing last year, Dieter Reichmann asked his conviction be thrown
out because he said another man confessed to the murder and two
eyewitnesses saw a pedestrian kill Kirsten Kischnick, 31. Reichmann
was convicted and sentenced to death for the October 1987
shooting.
But Miami-Dade Circuit
Judge Jerald Bagley rejected Reichmann's claims, saying in his
ruling Friday that the evidence of another confession was ``totally
unreliable.''
He said that confession was a ``sickeningly
fabricated story'' designed solely to collect a reward Reichmann had
offered. One of the witnesses ``clearly testified that he did not
witness the crime and that he only heard about it from others at a
local bar,'' Bagley said.
The judge said the other witness
was ``an eleven-time convicted felon and drug addict'' who gave
details that were totally inconsistent with the physical
descriptions of Reichmann and Kischnick and evidence and testimony
given in court.
Reichmann, now 58, will get another chance to
escape the death penalty. The Florida Supreme Court upheld his
conviction in 2000, but ordered a new jury trial to determine
whether to he should be sentenced to life in prison or
death.
Bagley said that will begin June 16, but Reichmann's
lawyer, Terri Backhus, said she will ask the judge to delay that
trial while she appeals Friday's decision.
Kischnick was
fatally shot as she sat in the passenger seat of a car driven by
Reichmann. He testified at his trial in 1988 that he had gotten lost
in downtown Miami and she was shot by a pedestrian whom he had asked
for directions.
But prosecutors said the murder was committed
to collect more than $1 million in insurance. The state noted that a
.38-caliber weapon similar to the one used in the killing was found
in Riechmann's luggage.
Backhus did persuade Bagley to order
the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct DNA testing of
a blanket that was in the car. Backhus and Reichmann contend the
blanket was stained with blood from a man they say shot Kischnick
while reaching into the car to steal her purse. |
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